Capture the Flag
by MissWitchx
Summary: The Potter and Weasley children engage in a competitive magical game of Capture the Flag, an idea that was suggested by Hermione. Harry and Ron on the other hand are less than impressed with her idea, and are adamant that no game could ever be as good as Quidditch.


**A/N: **I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter and this is a non-profit story. This was written for the _Very Potter Challenge _and the _Horoscope Challenge. _I'll add the prompts I was given at the end. Just a head's up, the grammatical mistakes are on purpose if you're reading the children's dialogue or thoughts.

Please read, review and enjoy :)

* * *

"MUM!" Albus Potter called from the living room. He blinked in surprise when four faces appeared around the doorframe instead of just his mother's.

"What is it, sweetie?" Ginny smiled, knowing full well that her pet-name would embarrass her son, as his cousins Rose, Hugo and were visiting for the day. His other cousin, Fred, was also there, as George had asked her and Harry to look after him whilst he and Angelina ran errands.

Albus crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue at his Mum when a chorus of snickers rang out in the room. Why did parents have to be so annoying?

"Think of something for us all to do, please," he said, looking into the faces of his Mum, Dad, Aunt and Uncle. The laughter died down and the other five children also glanced up expectantly.

Hermione sighed, "Albus, are you seriously telling us that _six _of you can't think of _anything_ at all to play?"

Albus nodded and his older brother James piped up, "Yeah. It's summer Aunty Mione. It's a time for playing, not thinking."

Harry and Ron laughed. Even Hermione couldn't hold back her smile, "Oh really, James? You are a smart boy you know, it'd be a shame to let that go to waste."

"Hmm, I like Quidditch better than school," James replied with no hesitation.

Many of the room's occupants simultaneously took in an intake of breath and all exclaimed together, "QUIDDITCH!"

"NO!" The two mothers shot back automatically, and the children who had shouted out all pouted. Hugo and Lily on the other hand, both breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why?" Albus whined. His arms were still firmly crossed. Parents really were no fun. When he had children, he would be the funnest Dad ever. They'd have ice cream for dinner every night and wouldn't have a bedtime, and-

"Because it wouldn't be safe," his Aunt Hermione said firmly, "I know quite a few of you are quite capable flyers but Lily and Hugo, as the youngest, aren't steady on brooms yet. It wouldn't be a fair match."

At the door, Ron whispered to Harry, "yeah poor sod. He picked the short straw didn't he? Getting his flying abilities from Hermione and not me." Harry smirked but didn't dare comment because Hermione was in earshot, and her perfected Mother-death-glare was almost as scary as Ginny's. He certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end of either of them.

Albus and James continued to protest, "but we'd go easy on them. And if we put them on different teams-"

"No," Hermione repeated. She couldn't even bear the sight of her children hovering five feet in the air on a toy broomstick let alone the idea of them being involved in a Quidditch match - even if it _was_ just for fun.

"But Mum-" Rose began.

"Rosie. No," Hermione repeated, implementing her famed glare. Harry witnessed this and shuddered at the sight.

"You know you're really scary when you do that," Ron commented.

"What I lack in looks, I make up in heart," came the response.

"Eh?"

"I may not always be all smiles on the outside but no matter what, the children's best interests will always come first." Hermione said.

Rose followed Albus' lead and crossed her arms. She fluttered her eyelashes at her Dad. She knew her mother didn't appreciate Quiddich, and that her Dad was quite the opposite. Rose didn't understand how he could marry someone who didn't like Quidditch; it was the best sport ever in her opinion.

Ron saw his daughter's plea and he whispered to Hermione, "come on, you know Rose is a great flyer. She'll look after Hugo and I'm sure James and Albus would look out for Lily."

"Ronald." Hermione snapped. She didn't need to elaborate; Ron knew her mind was made up and there would be no changing that. He sighed and shrugged apologetically at Rose. She and Albus exchanged annoyed glances.

"Well Mum," she said, deciding to get her own back, "this is why I told Al to ask you for ideas. We knew you wouldn't let us do anything _we_ thought of."

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady," Hermione bristled. Ron snickered beside her, finding it very entertaining that Rose had inherited a lethal combination of Hermione's stubborn attitude and his quick temper.

"She's got a point babe," he said quietly to his wife, "let's just think of something they can do to get them out of our hair for a while. This is the first time we've seen Harry and Ginny in weeks."

Hermione acknowledged Ron's words and stared out at the back garden of the Potter's house, searching for inspiration. It was large but too open for what she had in mind. She looked beyond the trees at the field that backed onto the house. Bushes and hedgerow were situated at one end. These lay at the base of a small but steep hill that lead up to the main stretch of land. A small wooded area, with tall evergreen trees, occupied the other end of the field.

It reminded her of the playing field that was at her old Muggle school, so she knew it would be perfect. The game she had thought of was easy to play and understand, so she thought it was a solid solution to the children's problem.

"Okay you lot, get your bums off the sofas," she declared.

The children bounced up and down in excitement, "Ooh what have you thought of?" Rose asked eagerly.

"Capture the Flag," Hermione announced.

The children stopped bouncing and stared blankly up at her. Even the adults were confused.

"What's that when it's at home?" Ron scratched his head. He already knew he wouldn't like the game. No matter how brilliant it was, nothing would compare to Quidditch and his opinion on that would never change. Harry was thinking the same thing, though neither men dared to say anything aloud.

"A Muggle game people used to play at my school before I started at Hogwarts," she said. Harry, Ron and Ginny exchanged sceptical looks and the older children looked less than impressed.

"So no magic would be involved? That's rubbish," Fred stated matter-of-factly.

"Don't be silly, we can change the rules. Just because it's a Muggle game doesn't mean you have to play that way."

"What are the rules?" Harry asked without enthusiasm.

"Okay well there are two teams, and each team has a flag. You need quite a large area to play, so I was thinking about using that field over there," Hermione gestured out of the window to where she had been looking, and everyone simultaneously peered out curiously. Albus, James, Fred and Rose already didn't like this game. It wouldn't be played on brooms, and that was enough for them to lose interest.

"The play area has three sections. The two end sections each belong to one team and the middle part is neutral, so it doesn't matter who walks on there. Teams have to hide their flag somewhere in their section of the play area, and the aim of the game is to find the other team's flag and bring it back to your own end."

"That sounds like a baby game," James said flatly, in the bluntest way any eight year-old would.

"James, let her finish." Harry warned, though he couldn't blame his son for being so disengaged. He didn't even know if there were any more rules, but he had spoken out of hope that Hermione had more to say.

Hermione smiled at Harry and continued, "if for example, James and Rose were on different teams, and James saw Rose in his team's section of the field with the flag, he could send her to 'jail' if he caught her, which would just be a special area in James' side of the field. Anyone on Rose's team can free her by touching her."

The younger children, Lily and Hugo, seemed quite interested; however nobody else was too enthusiastic. Even Hermione felt foolish for suggesting the idea to magical children, but she was in too deep to back out now.

"How can we bring magic into this?" Albus asked curiously. He didn't think the game was that bad – it sounded like a grounded version of Quidditch.

"I don't think spells should be allowed. None of you know any spells that would be of use and some of you can't even control your magic yet. But I suppose each team could have one magical object?" Hermione looked to the other adults for their opinions but they just muttered inaudibly and shrugged, clearly still adamant that no game would ever compare to Quidditch.

Albus became excited again, "Ooooh goody!" he said. Hermione was pleased to see that the children's interested had been piqued again at the suggestion.

"Can I use my invisibility cloak? Pleeeeaaasseee?" Albus asked.

"_Our_ invisibility cloak," James and Lily piped up. They both glared at their brother.

Harry groaned. Clearly it had been a mistake not to designate the cloak to any of his children in particular.

"I should get it, I'm the oldest," James stuck out his tongue at Albus.

"If you get it then I get a broom," Albus shot back.

"That's not fair!"

"Is so!"

"Is not!"

"Is-"

"BOYS!" Ginny snapped.

"Sorry Mum," the brothers chorused. They both sank back in their seats and pouted.

Hermione sighed. This was taking longer than she had anticipated, "Yes, I think it's a good idea for one team to have the cloak and another to have a broom. Both would be useful."

"Mmm but both would allow a very easy win," Ginny interjected, "With a broom you wouldn't be able to get caught and well, the cloak speaks for itself really. I think certain rules need to be applied here." The redhead could see that Hermione was really trying, and clearly no one had any other ideas how to entertain the children so she decided to support her the best she could.

Harry and Ron still weren't convinced. The game didn't actually sound half bad now, but they were still sceptical about how the children would respond.

"Okay," nodded Hermione, "so if you're the team with the broom, you can only use it to fly to the other end to try and see where the other team's flag is hidden. You can't use the broom to get the flag or hover over it to show your team mates where it is or to direct them to it."

The children were listening intently, though Albus wasn't keen on all these rules. Why did adults have to suck the fun out of everything with rules? When he was older he wouldn't have rules in his house. He'd do whatever he wanted, like fly on his broomstick indoors and eat chocolate frogs all day long.

"What about the cloak?" six-year old Hugo asked.

"You may use the cloak to walk over to the other team's end to find the flag, but one you've got it, you have to take the cloak off to get back to your side. Just so there's an even chance that anybody can get caught and sent to the jail," Ginny suggested.

"Cool. I like the sound of this game," Lily smiled.

"Me too," Rose said, and the children all nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Harry. Designate two captains will you?" Ginny said, "make yourself useful." Clearly, she had picked up on Harry's disengagement from the whole idea.

The children all looked toward Harry and waited.

"I s'pose it should be James and Freddie. They're the eldest."

After some arguments about the team arrangements, the children eventually completed the task. The first team was made up of James, Albus and Hugo, with the second team being Fred, Rose and Lily. There had been some debate that the girls should be split up to make the teams even, but they refused to be separated.

A galleon was flipped to determine which magical object each team would have for the game. It seemed the fairest way as there was no way a consensus would be achievable with six five-to-nine year olds.

"Alright, dragon or wizard, Rosie?" Ron said.

"Dragon," Rose responded with no hesitation. The coin had landed with the wizard on the upward face, and after Albus and James kept bickering about which object would be best to have, Ron left the final decision to Hugo, who picked the cloak.

With that sorted the last bit of preparation was to find actual flags they could use. With both of the Potters coming from Gryffindor house, there wasn't much of a selection.

"We'll just have to put a charm on one so it has a different colour and design," Hermione said. She turned away to do just that but couldn't concentrate as James and Albus were now discussing the broom-or-cloak situation with Hugo. Well not discussing; arguing. Again.

The other three adults made to tell their children off but Hermione stopped them. She had thought of a more suitable punishment…

Albus and James were far from impressed when their aunt handed them a green and silver Slytherin flag, whilst the other team was given a Gryffindor one.

* * *

Surprisingly, the children really got into the game once it had started. It didn't matter how young some of them were; they had all inherited some kind of competitive gene from their respective parents. The game had started with a free-for-all, with everybody trying to charge to the other side all at the same time, apparently forgetting about their magical objects they were allowed to use. But ten minutes in, both teams had started implementing tactics, with plans of action and each member being given assigned roles.

"Merlin, they're really taking this seriously," Ron laughed as he saw Rose call Fred into a huddle, presumably to discuss the best way to rescue Lily from the other team's undercover jail, which was charmed so the occupant couldn't escape unless someone touched them. This precaution was suggested by Rose, who had pointed out that the team with the cloak could easily pretend they'd been freed if they were in the jail.

"I thought Freddie was meant to be the captain," Ginny squinted at the pair from the sidelines.

"Yeah well, our Rose is bound to be bossy isn't she?" Ron poked Hermione in the ribs. She punched him playfully in response.

"So are you two finally opening your minds a little?" she asked Harry and Ron, "I mean, shock horror: the children are having fun and they aren't playing Quidditch!"

"It's an all right substitute I suppose," Harry replied reluctantly. He had to admit, if only to himself, that this had been a better idea. Quidditch would have demanded the parents' full attention due to the risk of injury, but Hermione's game allowed the four of them to have a good catch-up with each other. They only ever had to pause their conversations to watch whenever someone was using the broomstick.

Rose was currently in the air. She and Fred had decided that their priority should be to find the flag before they freed Lily. Albus and Hugo were both in their jail and the invisibility cloak was with them, so the Weasley cousins would only be facing an un-armed James at the other side.

James had spotted Rose overhead as she tried to search for their flag. He squinted to look at what Fred was doing, which proved quite difficult as his end of the field sloped downwards. Only the top of Fred's head was visible, but James could see that he was staring intently at what Rose was doing.

Having claimed the end of the field with the trees, James had hung the flag on a low branch. He hoped this would make the broomstick useless for the other team, so hopefully Rose would be there for some time. James decided to make a run for it to free his equally useless teammates.

Fred saw James approaching, and stood in front of his team's jail. This was the only way he could stop James, as he had to have the flag in order for Fred to put him in jail too. But then the redhead noticed Rose making the return journey on the broomstick. Fred prayed that his cousin had caught sight of the flag, because James' end of the field was currently unoccupied.

As Rose dismounted and started talking to Fred, James ran up to the jail and yanked his brother and cousin out of the charmed area, freeing them.

"How did you idiots get captured? You were invisible!" He said in exasperation, panting slightly.

Albus and Hugo didn't have time to explain as the boys noticed Fred go haring across to their end of the field, " if you two want to make up for that stupid mistake, make sure none of Fred's team get out of our zone with the flag."

"But he's at our end now. We won't make it!" Hugo whined.

"That doesn't mean he knows where the flag is," Albus said, "you two go over there. I'll keep the cloak to try and get their flag. I already know where it is," he added proudly.

"Doesn't mean they hid it in the same place after they got you," James called as he and Hugo ran across the field.

"Oh, bum!" Albus exclaimed.

Rose had watched this whole exchange, and saw Albus cover himself with the cloak. She sat down facing the foot of the hill and the hedges, where their flag was hidden. Albus would have to take the cloak off once he had the flag, so it would be up to her to try and catch him again.

Since he had a good head start, Fred pulled Lily out of James' jail on his way to the flag. Rose couldn't tell it's exact position from the broom, but she said she saw the silver on the flag shining in the sunlight through the leaves of a tree on the far-right of the other team's zone.

"Finally!" Lily moaned. He was holding her hand so he could pull her along faster, as Lily was the youngest of the six of them, and therefore was the smallest, "I've been in there aaagggesss!"

"Where are your manners, Lil?" Fred joked, "If you don't say 'thank you' I won't help you next time."

"Sorry. Thank you Freddie," she said in a singsong voice, giving her cousin a toothy grin.

Fred laughed and searched frantically for a glint of silver in amongst the trees. It would be pointless to search for the flag in general, since the green background would blend in to the leaves. He heard shouting behind them and whirled around.

James and Hugo were pacing the length of their zone, presumably waiting for them to appear with the flag. To Fred's relief, Albus wasn't anywhere to be seen. He hadn't found their flag yet either.

"Ooooh shiny!" Lily squealed excitedly.

"Where?" Fred gasped. He followed Lily's gaze and caught sight of the Slytherin flag, which was hanging from a low branch a couple of yards away, "Yes! There it is, Lil, can you see it?"

"Yup, can I go get it?" she asked.

"Yeah. Just be quick, okay?"

Lily nodded and ran to get the flag. She returned seconds later, beaming with pride. She held it out for Fred to take but he shook his head, having thought of an idea.

"Keep hold of it. Scrunch it up in your hand so they won't be able to see you have it. Wait here. I'm going to make James and Hugo think I've got the flag to distract them. That's when you need to run out and across to Rose as fast as you can. Have you got that?"

Lily smiled. She was happy that she had something important to do after being in the jail for most of the game. Cramming the flag into her little hand was difficult, but she managed to squash it in, bar a couple of edges that poked out from between her fingers.

Fred took a deep breath and emerged from the trees. He snatched a large, flat leaf off the floor and waved it in the air triumphantly. James and Hugo, being a few metres away, mistook the leaf for their flag and charged at Fred.

Lily took this as her signal to move and took off to the other end of the field as fast as her legs could carry her. By this point, James and Hugo had discovered Fred's red herring, and whipped round in dismay as they saw Lily exit their segment.

"Fred, that's cheating!" Hugo declared, stamping his foot.

"Aunt Hermione never said I couldn't do that. It wasn't in the rules," Fred responded smugly. He was so busy relishing the success of his plan that he only just noticed James running after Lily.

James knew he wouldn't be able to put Lily back in jail, but as long as she couldn't get to her zone, her team couldn't win. His legs were much longer than his sister's, so he was confident he would catch her in time.

Fred panicked and yelled, "ROSE!" at the top of his lungs. He hoped Rose would catch on quickly and get the flag off Lily before James reached her.

Rose heard Fred calling her and span around, getting to her feet. Albus, who had been waiting for her to be distracted, took that moment to de-cloak, grab the red flag from under a hedge and run straight past Rose.

"Bloody hell!" Rose cursed, sounding eerily like her Dad. She saw Lily and James advancing, and Lily was holding something out to her. She was red-faced and panting, and James was gaining on her fast.

It suddenly registered that Lily was holding the flag, and Rose sprinted towards her to retrieve it. It was going to be a straight race between Albus and herself to get the flag back to their respective zones. She managed to snatch the flag from her cousin and turned on her heel back down the slope to their section of the field, not bothering to look to see where Albus was.

"Oh bloody hell, tell me this isn't happening," Ron remarked. He was leaning forwards and watching the game intently. Hermione suppressed a giggle that her husband had been so unenthusiastic about her idea, and now he could barely look away.

The adults stopped their conversation and all turned their attention to the field. It was like watching a mirror image. Rose and Albus were running in opposite directions, and both children had flags. Soon, they all realised why Ron sounded so shocked: Albus and Rose were at equal distances away from each end of the field, and it looked like the game would end in a tie.

"This reminds me of your second year Quidditch match, Harry," Ginny laughed, "you know, the one where you and Malfoy were both after the snitch at the same time?"

"Oh Merlin, even I was in suspense when I watched that," Hermione said, "and that was before that Bludger started chasing Harry."

Sure enough, Albus and Rose reached their sections at the same time and simultaneously let out a triumphant, "Whoop!" in celebration. A few seconds later, the children all marched to the middle of the field. They were shouting and apparently arguing about who really won.

"Uh-oh, better settle this," Harry strode over to the group. The other three parents followed.

"Daddy you were watching weren't you? Tell them Rosie got there before Albus," Lily said, running up to Harry.

"Sorry Lil. None of us could tell who won," he admitted.

"Honestly Dad, I thought you had those omniocular things," James rolled his eyes.

"Well I wasn't expecting this game to be quite so, er, intense," Harry laughed, "all of you are much more competitive than I thought."

"I want a re-match," Albus said.

"Me too," Fred agreed.

"Me three," Hugo laughed, "that was a fun game."

The children all nodded in agreement and looked up hopefully at the adults. Harry turned around and gave his wife and friends a questioning look. They all shrugged and smiled.

"All right then, go and hide your flags," Harry said, "and I think you should swap objects this time."

A chorus of excited squeals rang out and the children separated and ran in opposite directions.

"You know, they're only just going to get more tactical the more they play," Ron whispered to Harry.

"We really underestimated Hermione about this idea didn't we?" The younger man replied.

"Don't tell her I said this but yeah we did," Ron said, "is it bad that I kind of want to play?"

Hermione overheard this last comment, "honestly Ronald it's a children's game."

Ron's ears turned red at the tone of her voice. Hermione smiled and spoke again, "but for the record, Ginny and I could beat you and Harry any day," she winked.

"I'd like to see you try," Ron laughed.

_The End._

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**A/N: **I've never written any next-gen stories before so I thought I'd have a go at it. Let me know what you thought!

**Prompts:**

**The Very Potter Challenge: **I had to include the quotes "what I lack in looks I make up in heart," and "how did you idiots get captured? you were invisible!"

**The Horoscope Challenge: **I was given my horoscope for the week I signed up, and had to make a character go through the scenario in my story. My horoscope prediction was: Your mind opens up to new ideas, and you see an easy answer that just takes a little nudge to get rolling. Things should make a lot more sense once you start moving in this new direction

Not sure how well I managed the horoscope one as it was quite tricky. But I tried to portray it through Ron and Harry's adamance that Hermione's game would never be as good as Quidditch, and how the children's response to it made them open their minds a little.


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